The President and CEO of the Greater YMCA has reached out to parents within the organization after the arrest of Jesse Lemar McCormick on charges of child solicitation and transmission of obscene materials to a child.
From Gary A. Cobbs
YMCA of Greater Montgomery
Dear YMCA Parents:
First and foremost, I hope this finds your family safe and healthy. We miss seeing you and your children every day, and we can’t wait to get back to normal operations.
At the YMCA of Greater Montgomery, the safety and well-being of children in our care always has been and always will be a top priority.
As you may know, a part-time employee, Jesse Lemar McCormick, was arrested on charges of child solicitation and transmission of obscene materials to a child. We are not aware of any incidents that happened involving the YMCA, but we are fully cooperating with the proper authorities. This matter is deeply disturbing and saddening to us. This employee has been terminated and is banned from all YMCA property.
We take our responsibility to you and your children very seriously. We have a series of measures in place to keep children safe, including:
Conducting National Sex Offender Registry checks;
Conducting State & County Criminal Record checks;
Conducting Social Security verification, 10-year address history, and terrorist database checks;
Conducting interviews and work history checks prior to hiring;
Conducting reference checks for all applicants;
Require all staff to complete training on preventing, recognizing and responding to abuse;
Prohibiting staff from being alone with a child where they cannot be observed by others;
Restricting staff contact with children outside of YMCA programs;
Reporting any allegations or suspicions of abuse to the proper authorities in accordance with Alabama law;
Regularly completing a comprehensive child abuse prevention self-assessment;
Regularly administer a review of our Association Child Abuse Reporting and Training with our Board of Directors;
Conducting daily screenings of all members against the National Sex Offender Registry and terminates any memberships that may return positive.
I know you join me when I say that we take our responsibility to children and their families very seriously and that we take pride in providing safe places for children to grow in skills and self-confidence.
Again, we are not aware of any incident involving our YMCA. If you have any additional information, please contact us directly at info@ymcamontgomery.org
Please take care of yourself and your family.
Sincerely,
Gary A. Cobbs
YMCA of Greater Montgomery
